HP works to license webOS, Samsung wants in

The Internet is abuzz with discussion around a report from Bloomberg revealing that HP is actively discussing webOS licensing with other major OEMs. The fact that HP is keen to license its recently acquired property isn’t really a shock. After all, Palm did it back in its heyday, signing up Handspring and Sony to use PalmOS on their devices.

What’s a bit more interesting is that Samsung, of all companies, is believed to be actively discussing webOS with HP. Why is that so odd?

First, consider that Samsung has managed to claw its way to the top of the Android OEM standings — not an easy task, considering the competition includes companies like HTC and Motorola. Samsung has also been walking hand-in-hand with Google itself lately, manufacturing the Nexus S and providing the limited edition Galaxy Tab 10.1 units that developers received at I/O 2011.

There’s also Bada to consider, Samsung’s own in-house featurephone OS, which was introduced late in 2009 and enjoyed one of the most successful launches since that of the original iPhone. That’s no small feat for a laregely unknown mobile OS, and that success had Samsung confident that Bada would even find its way onto Samsung TVs.

So with a stable of successful tablets and smartphones running Android and Bada at its disposal for lower-cost phones (and possibly other future devices), why would Samsung want to license webOS and risk spreading itself too thin?

Samsung builds plenty of other devices that might be good candidates for webOS — like personal media players, computer monitors, and connected refrigerators. Hedging its bets in the smartphone department might not be a bad idea either, what will all the legal noise Apple has been making lately.

Speak Your Mind

Gdram

Samsung Electronis alone is a huge and diversified company that wants to set a foot in every single conceivable market. It is just trying to increase their ever growing revenue even more. Hedging against Apple? That must be a joke. Apple may end up producing some Android or Bada phones in the future, lol. Who knows?

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1223563048 Angel Ham

Expect Samsung to release the WebOS-based Galaxy Padtouch.

Choda Boy

I wonder if the gesture area would survive another hardware manufacturer?